Poland’s defence ministry has announced it will re-launch plans to establish a joint Polish, Ukrainian and Lithuanian military brigade.

The ministry said defence ministers will meet this week to discuss the formation of the brigade that would straddle Nato’s eastern border and bring Ukraine’s armed forces closer to the Western fold.

Plans for a joint brigade had originally been struck in 2009 but had failed to make significant progress due to foot-dragging by Ukraine’s previous government, and difficulties in Polish-Lithuanian relations.

But the Ukraine crisis appears to have provided fresh momentum to the organisation of the brigade.

“Last week Ukraine’s deputy defence minister visited Nato headquarters and returned to the idea of the Polish-Ukrainian-Lithuanian brigade,” said Pawel Kowal, a Polish MEP who, in 2007, was the first to advocate the benefits of forming the multi-national brigade.

“Now is the time to only to refresh the idea but also realise it,” added Mr Kowal. “Regardless of the result of the referendum in Crimea we have to continue with our commitment.”

Given shared historical anxieties over Russian intentions Poland and Ukraine have, in the past, pursued good military relations. Some 1,600 Ukrainian troops served under Polish command during the Iraq war, and Ukraine’s forces also co-operated with Poles during the Nato-led peacekeeping operations in Kosovo.

The danger of war breaking out in Poland’s eastern neighbour has prompted Warsaw to quicken the pace of reforming and strengthening its armed forces and national defences.

Poland is already committed to a GBP 26-billion defence spending programme, which makes it one of only five Nato countries to hit the organisation’s unofficial requirement of spending 2 per cent of GDP on defence, but last week the government announced plans to revamp and strengthen its military reserve.

Twelve US F-16s and 300 support personnel have also arrived in Poland with the intention of bolstering the country’s air defences.